---
title: Treat 'Em Rough! Join the Tanks, United States Tank Corps
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/treat-em-rough-join-the-tanks-1918/
description: An enormous snarling black cat with bared claws leaps through flames over a battlefield of tanks and barbed wire.
section: Collection
---

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3. Treat 'Em Rough! Join the Tanks, United States Tank Corps

[![Treat 'Em Rough! Join the Tanks, United States Tank Corps, 1918 US poster: An enormous snarling black cat with bared claws](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/treat-em-rough-join-the-tanks-1918.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/treat-em-rough-join-the-tanks-1918.jpg)

# Treat 'Em Rough! Join the Tanks, United States Tank Corps

An enormous snarling black cat with bared claws leaps through flames over a battlefield of tanks and barbed wire, under the slogan 'Treat 'Em Rough!' and the recruiting line 'Join the Tanks'. The poster transfers the ferocity of the animal onto the new arm and its volunteers, and the image of attack carries the appeal in place of any account of tank service.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/) [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
TREAT'EM ROUGH!

JOIN THE TANKS
United States Tank Corps.

[signature, lower left:] AUGUST HUTAF
[imprint, lower right:] National Printing & Engineering Co., Chicago, New York, St. Louis  010824
```

[← Together We Win](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/together-we-win-shipping-board-1918/) [Uncle Sam: The Lid's Down! Obey Orders! →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uncle-sam-the-lids-down-obey-orders-1918/)

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- [Tyrants Prostrate, Liberty Triumphant (pro-Polk cartoon on Dorr), 1844](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/tyrants-prostrate-liberty-triumphant-polk-1844/) (United States · 1844 · Name-calling, Fear appeal). Content note: Speech balloons contain anti-Catholic and nativist wording ('the ruins of Popery') in the mouths of the Whig figures, written by a Democratic cartoonist and shown unaltered.
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